Yetunde Daniel
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has nullified the summons of the House of Representatives on the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.
The House had summoned Alison-Madueke in order to probe her alleged waste of public funds on the use of chartered jets for unofficial purposes.
Justice Ahmed Mohammed on Wednesday, December 17, set aside the summons in a judgment in the suit filed by the minister, her ministry and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC to challenge the validity of the House’s invitation.
According to reports, the minster had allegedly spent about N10bn of public fund on charter and maintenance of an 850 Challenger jet for unofficial purposes.
This prompted the decision of the House Committee on Public Accounts to summon the Minister and the NNPC to appear before it for the purposes of investigating the allegations.
The judge held that the summons was invalid as there was no evidence before the court to show that the House resolution from which the summons emanated was published in the journal of the National Assembly or the official gazette of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
He held that though the National Assembly had the power to summon any public officer in order to investigate their activities, but failure to publish the resolution as required under Section 88 of the Constitution had rendered the summons invalid.
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